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RACISM OR CONSERVATISM: EXPLAINING RISING REPUBLICANISM IN THE DEEP SOUTH
Author(s) -
Shaffer Stephen D.,
Cotter Patrick R.,
Tucker Ronnie B.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.2000.tb00570.x
Subject(s) - conservatism , salient , racial diversity , identification (biology) , racism , race (biology) , diversity (politics) , political science , public opinion , perception , white (mutation) , criminology , political economy , gender studies , sociology , psychology , law , politics , biochemistry , chemistry , botany , neuroscience , gene , biology
Statewide opinion polls from the Deep South states of Alabama and Mississippi conducted during the 1990s are employed to examine the public's images of the parties, racial differences in those images, and their correlates with party identification. Racial issues appear to exert little effect over whites' partisan identifications, as a diversity of other issues that Republicans have favorable images on, such as crime and traditional values, are more important to whites. Racial differences do exist on perceptions of the two parties' strengths, as well as on the issues most salient in shaping each race's partisan ties. Racial differences in the images of the parties are the primary explanation for racial differences in party identification.